At the Cooper Hewitt, Monday, September 26, 6:30-8pm, Game Changers: NASA Astronaut Dan Barry on the Future of Space Exploration. Mr. Barry took three space flights and made four space walks—he'll talk about that and more.

Ian McEwan's new book, Nutshell, finds the author in top form. Hear him read from it at 92Y tonight, 8:15pm. Tickets are $30.

The Golden Record was the name of the LP(!) sent into space on board Voyage in 1977. It contains, among other things, music by Mozart and Chuck Berry—in case anyone Out There is interested and has a Victrola. The contents were selected by a Carl Sagan-chaired committee. At The Greene Space on Tuesday, September 27, 7pm, Kurt Andersen, Maria Popova, Ira Flatow and Terrance McKnight discuss how they would remaster The Golden Record from the standpoint of 2016.

Susan Brind Morrow, author of The Dawning Moon of the Mind: Unlocking the Pyramid Texts, along with Jed Buchwald and Diane Josefowicz, share new understandings of hieroglyphs at the Explorers Club, Monday, October 3rd, 7pm. Tickets are $25.

City of Dreams, The 400-Year Epic History of Immigrant New York, is a new book by Tyler Anbinder, out next month. He'll be at the Tenement Museum on October 19th, 6:30pm, to discuss.

TEDx Upper West Side Women is a day-long event at Symphony Space on Thursday, October 27. Discussions will be on the theme of 'It's About Time.'

Former NY Times Ethicist columnist Randy Cohen has a new interview-series gig courtesy of the JCC: Person Place Thing. You could hardly find a more interesting interviewee than Laurie Anderson, Cohen's guest on Wednesday, November 2, 7:30pm.

Columbia professor Tim Wu has a new book due out next month called The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads, which should make for fascinating reading. On October 17, Mr. Wu will command your attention at a LIVE from the NYPL event, 7pm. $25.